Chương 125: Designing My Own Formation

Azure shifted around a bit and then three ghostly formations popped up in the air in front of me. Every single one of them looked more complicated than the basic Protection Barrier I learned earlier, and they were all complex in their own ways.

"The first one is called the Reactive Shield Array," Azure said, pointing at the formation sitting on the left.

"Do you see how it has extra triangles sitting between the main support structures? Those act as sensor points, so the barrier can detect any incoming attacks and strengthen itself up in those specific spots." I spent a second looking at the pattern carefully. The extra triangles ended up making a web-like structure inside the main barrier and they were all connected by delicate lines that likely carried the information about whatever was attacking it.

It looked elegant, and it was also incredibly precise too, because having one misaligned sensor point would probably throw the whole reaction system off.

"The second one is the Adaptive Barrier Circuit," Azure gestured over to the middle formation.

"Instead of having fixed support structures, it uses a series of interlocking hexagons that can shift around and realign themselves depending on where the pressure is. Doing that allows it to distribute the force a lot more evenly across the entire barrier." This one was fascinating to look at. The hexagonal pattern looked like a honeycomb except it had extra lines that let every section rotate around a little bit.

It would definitely be a lot more flexible than a normal barrier, although I figured it probably sacrificed some raw defensive power to do that.

"And what about the third one?"

"That is the Resonance Shield Formation," Azure replied.

"It is designed to absorb and store up some of the energy from the attacks, and then it releases it out to strengthen the barrier whenever you need it. Do you see those spiral patterns sitting there? They act like temporary energy storage points." I leaned in a little closer so I could look at the spirals better. They were integrated into the barrier's support structure in a clever way, making what looked like tiny whirlpools made out of spiritual energy.

The entire thing had a strange musical quality to it, almost like every part was supposed to vibrate at specific frequencies.

"So," I sat back down while I tried to process everything I was seeing, "they all take a different approach to fix the same problem. The Reactive Shield uses detection and targeted reinforcement, while the Adaptive Barrier uses geometric flexibility, and then the Resonance Shield uses energy recycling."

"That's right," Azure gave a nod.

"Every one of them represents a different philosophy for dynamic formation design. The first one prioritizes quick responses, while the second one emphasizes adaptation, and the third one focuses entirely on efficiency."

"But they all share some of the same basic principles," I murmured.

"They all have some way of gathering information about the attacks, and some method for processing that information, along with some mechanism for adjusting the barrier's properties to respond to it."

"It's like a simple nervous system," Azure agreed with me.

"Input, processing, and output. The key difference between level one and level two formations is more than complexity, it is the addition of feedback loops that allow the formation to respond directly to its environment." I stood up and began pacing around, which was a habit I had that helped me think things through.

"So, if I want to create my own level two formation, I need to make sure I incorporate these principles into it. And I also need to do it in a way that is different. It has to be original."

"And it needs to be stable too," Azure added.

"Don't get any ideas about trying to combine all three of those approaches together. Although it sounds impressive, it is more difficult to implement in reality. Every additional system you try adding, increases the complexity exponentially. So, attempting to put two different dynamic responses into one formation would be extremely ambitious for a beginner like you." I gave a slow nod while my brain brought up those warnings about 'boom points' from that formation manual I read earlier.

"I have to find the perfect sweet spot sitting between making it functional and keeping it stable." I stopped pacing when a sharp pain ran through my mind.

"I think I need to go take a break. I'm getting a headache from all this thinking, and I'm running out of spiritual essence anyway."

"That's a wise decision," Azure said with an approving look.

"Mental fatigue can end up being as dangerous as running out of qi whenever you are playing around with formations." I pulled my awareness back into my physical body and when I opened my eyes, I was still sitting there cross-legged inside my quarters. The sun had moved across the sky and was starting to set now, which meant I probably spent a couple hours inside my inner world. Taking a deep breath, I fixed up my posture and started channeling the World Tree Sutra through my meridians.

I focused on filling up my spiritual essence again while I let my brain take a much-needed rest. While I was sitting there meditating, tiny pieces of formation patterns kept drifting around inside my head. Triangles for keeping stability, and circles so I could contain things, and spirals to make the energy flow better... they all kept mixing up and merging together in my thoughts where they made these interesting combinations before they melted back down into being abstract concepts.

After about an hour went by, my spiritual essence was finally back up to its peak, but the more important thing was how clear my thoughts felt, all that confusion I had earlier was gone and it was replaced by what felt like clarity. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. I was starting to make sense of everything. I decided not to jump back into my inner world, and I reached my hand out to grab the writing supplies sitting on my desk instead.

I pulled a few blank sheets of paper over and picked up my brush before I stopped myself for a second.

"I know you warned me about trying to mash all three of those example formations together," I spoke up slowly, "but I actually think I can make it work..."

"Oh, I already know it can work, Master. I am just not sure if you will be able to physically draw it without triggering a catastrophic cascade of explosions."

"I appreciate the vote of confidence there," I muttered.

"But you need to hear me out on this. What if we simplified every aspect of them? Like we only take the core principles from each formation and then we find some way to make all of them work together?"

"What do you have in mind?" I started drawing out rough sketches on the paper. The first thing I drew was the sensor web from the Reactive Shield, and then next to it, I made a simplified version that used a spiral pattern to do the same thing.

"We need to use the sensor system from the Reactive Shield, but we can probably simplify it a lot, like what if we used a spiral pattern instead of drawing out a web of detection points? It would end up being easier to keep the energy flowing properly like that."

"I suppose that could work," Azure agreed, sounding a little cautious about it.

"Having a spiral would give you some decent coverage while it stays a lot more stable than doing a web design. But what are you doing about the Adaptive Barrier's features?" I pulled over a new sheet and started sketching again, except this time I focused on the hexagonal structure from the second formation.

"Having the hexagonal structure is interesting but trying to get all those sections to rotate around would end up being..." I had to wince when my brain flashed back to all those crazy warnings about putting movement into formations, which made me accidentally drip some black ink onto my paper.

"Well let's call it ambitious. But what if we only take the principle of distributing force and we apply it in a different way?" I pushed the ruined paper off to the side and grabbed a fresh one, so I could start drawing curved channels that connected all the different sections together.

"Look at this, if we use curved channels to redirect the qi flow instead of using moving parts, then it becomes less mechanical and a lot more fluid."

"It would be like a river changing its course," Azure noted.

"And what are you taking from the Resonance Shield?"

"Using those spirals to store energy is pretty clever but trying to store qi and then release it again takes ridiculously precise control." I took a pause and started tapping my ink-covered brush against my chin, before I realized what I was doing to myself. I wiped the wet ink off my face and kept talking, "So what if we use smaller resonance points instead of doing that? We won't use them to store any energy, we'll use them to amplify it instead, like making echo chambers."

I sketched out a quick diagram showing nested octagons where every one of them was a tiny bit smaller than the one before it, so it made a structure that looked like a funnel.

"Look here, they traditionally use octagons inside sound-focusing formations anyway. So, if we use octagonal resonance chambers and we nest them together like this, then they will naturally amplify whatever energy flows through them without needing to store it up."

"That is not a bad idea, Master. Instead of trying to capture energy and release it, you would use the resonance to multiply all the qi you are already channeling into it. It is more efficient and it is a lot less likely to blow up in your face." Yeah, that was always a plus. I spread sheets of paper out all over my desk and started drawing out a more complete design.

The outer circle was still acting as the main foundation, but I added a detection spiral on the inside that was made out of tiny triangles connected together. Then I drew curved channels that would carry my energy around to the different parts of the barrier, and I placed tiny resonance chambers at the key junctions, so they could amplify the power without needing to store anything up.

"The trick to doing this," I muttered while I kept refining my design by making little adjustments and writing more notes down, "is keeping the formation balanced. Having too many sensor points will create interference, but if we have too few then we won't get enough of a warning. And all those curved channels have to be gentle enough, so they don't restrict the flow, but they still need to be sharp enough to redirect it."

"What about the resonance chambers?"

"Well, that is the tricky part." I sketched out a few different variations for what the resonance chamber design could look like.

"We have to precisely tune them so they can amplify things without destabilizing the overall pattern. Because if they get too strong, they will tear the formation apart, but if they are too weak, then they are sitting there wasting my energy for no reason." I ended up spending the next hour filling sheet after sheet up with all my sketches and calculations while Azure kept pointing out all the potential failure points so I could work on fixing them.

My fingers were covered in black ink stains, and I probably still had that huge smudge sitting on my face, but a design that looked workable gradually started emerging out of it all. The final pattern I came up with was simpler than combining all three of those example formations would have been, except it still managed to incorporate the key principles from every one of them in a way that might end up being stable.

"It isn't terrible," Azure finally admitted.

"You somehow managed to keep the complexity manageable even though you incorporated multiple different dynamic elements into it. All your energy flow paths are clean, those resonance chambers are properly isolated, and you elegantly integrated the sensor spiral into it."

"But?"

"But this formation is still an ambitious project for someone making their first level 2 formation." Azure's voice was carrying this clear tone of concern.

"The precision you are going to need for drawing those curved channels alone..."

"We should give it a few days," I told him while I set my brush back down on the desk.

"If we still haven't figured out how to make this work before I have my next lesson with Elder Chen Yong, then we can try making something simpler instead. Plus, the experience from designing this one will make my next attempt a whole lot easier." I took one last close look at the design so I could commit it to memory.

It had the outer circle for containment, the spiral made of sensor points to detect any incoming attacks, those curved channels distributing the power, and finally, carefully placed resonance chambers that would amplify the effect without needing me to store up energy. So, it wouldn't maintain full strength across the surface like the Reactive Shield did, it would stay at minimal power everywhere except for where it was being hit. It could distribute force effectively like the Adaptive Barrier did.

And it could amplify its own power like the Resonance Shield did. It was ridiculously ambitious, and maybe a little bit recklessly so. Except something about looking at it felt like I was finally starting to understand that formations weren't patterns you had to memorize, they were an actual language you could use.

"Are you ready?" Azure asked me even though I could tell from his tone that he knew what my answer was going to be.

"Yeah," I smiled.

"It's time to make my first level 2 formation."